DLC review: Mario Kart 8 - Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8

The second DLC pack for Mario Kart 8 has arrived, bringing with it eight new courses spread across two Grand Prix cups, three new racers, and a handful of new vehicle customization options. Following in the footsteps of the first DLC pack, this latest offering sees the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom open up their roster to accommodate for the Villagers and Isabelle from Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The majority of the vehicle options are similarly reflective of the Animal Crossing image, while the skeletal Dry Bowser is an outlier – a reskin of the Koopa king that presents more creativity in aesthetic appeal than the previously-released Tanooki Mario or Cat Suit Peach did.

And while all of these are fine additions to Mario Kart 8, the real meat of the DLC pack comes from the race tracks themselves. Half of the courses are reimaginings of courses that debuted in previous Mario Kart titles, while the other half are brand new. Two of the reimagined courses have Gameboy Advance origins, and boast the most obvious updates, both in terms of visual prowess and dynamic layout. As has been the case from the day of its release, Mario Kart 8 remains one of the most visually gorgeous games of this eighth console generation, and the pure variety of environments within this DLC pack continue that trend. From a massive playroom where your kart appears to be a shrunken toy, to graffiti-covered subway tunnels, to the winding breakneck turns of the hyper-futuristic Big Blue, there are plenty of impressive little details to take in.

Distinct about the Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8 pack is the overall more consistent length and quality of the eight tracks when compared to its Legend of Zelda-themed predecessor. Nearly every course makes use of multiple vehicle transformations, something that, once again, could not be said about almost half of the courses within the first DLC pack. The drawback, however, is the fact that there are fewer standout tracks from this latest batch. The Animal Crossing course is relatively straightforward in design, and while the changing of seasons is a neat afterthought, its environmental hazards and visual 'wow-factor' pale in comparison to Hyrule Circuit. With that said, this is still a solid DLC pack that provides quite a lot of bang for your buck. The courses each offer decent degrees of challenge, and revisiting them can drastically improve your finishing time.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

DLC review: Mario Kart 8 - The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8

This first of two DLC packs for Mario Kart 8 is quite generous, boasting two new Grand Prix cups with four tracks each, four new vehicles, three new racers, and a few additional customization options for your rides. While Tanooki Suit Mario and Cat Suit Peach are quick re-skins of pre-existing characters, the real treat is Link, hero of Hyrule, this time donning his look from Skyward Sword. This more heavily stylized design blends well with the Mushroom Kingdom gang’s cartoony appearances and reacts well to the bright lighting and colorful backdrops of many of Mario Kart 8’s locales. Link and all the other racers can take to the track in the Tanooki Kart, the B-Dasher from Mario Kart DS, the Blue Falcon of F-Zero fame, or a horse-shaped bike known as the Master Cycle.

Of the two new cups, the Egg Cup is arguably the more exciting overall, with three brand new courses and one reimagined version of the Yoshi Circuit from Double Dash!! The three new courses include Dragon Driftway, a windy course with a heavy Chinese festival aesthetic, and two courses that pay homage to Excitebike and F-Zero respectively. The Excitebike Arena, while a relatively uncomplicated series of jumps, presents a looped course that is certainly more interesting than similarly-shaped tracks of yesteryear like Baby Park. Mute City, meanwhile, is the real treat, as it utilizes the anti-gravity sections more fully than most any other track in MK8 yet. The abundance of boost pads and tight, winding turns makes this feel the part of a real F-Zero course, not to be outdone by the shiny metallic textures than cover every structure in the background.

The Triforce cup offers retreads of Wario’s Gold Mine from Mario Kart Wii and yet another variant of Rainbow Road, this time from the SNES days. Wario’s Gold Mine was hardly ever one of the strongest showings in Mario Kart Wii, while Rainbow Road’s layout is incredibly simple, as is the case with nearly every SNES Mario Kart course. While it was interesting to see how vastly different the MK8 Rainbow Road was from its reimagined N64 counterpart, this course has now been overdone in MK8, despite how mesmerizing the sparkly colors and glossy texture of the track might be. Ice Ice Outpost, one of the Triforce Cup’s new courses, splits paths multiple times as players race up, around, and through an arctic facility. The real gem of this cup, however, is the Hyrule Circuit, a somewhat shorter course that zips through Hyrule Castle and its nearby town and field, replacing coins with Rupees and Piranha Plants with Deku Babas.

While the quality of the two cups may not be consistent, they do provide a nice variety of lengths in their courses and a different set of challenges in the layouts of each. At the end of the day, the standouts are really the new race tracks, and while I do imagine there will still be at least a couple of retro courses in the second DLC pack come Spring, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Nintendo focuses their efforts primarily on providing more impressive new environments. Eight new tracks for less than $10 is a solid bargain on its own, but the fact that this pack includes the aforementioned characters and karts as well makes the whole package one sweet deal for anyone looking to extend their play experience with Mario Kart 8.

My rating: 8 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

Wii U review: Mario Kart 8

Following up on the new underwater and flying elements introduced in the 3DS release of Mario Kart 7, the Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 adds a new kart transformation into gravity-defying hovercraft. Now racers can ride along walls and up steep inclines, while riding right up alongside a rival racer will grant a mutual speed boost, thanks to the horizontal position of the wheels. Each of the sixteen new tracks incorporates all four of these race styles quite evenly throughout, while reimaginings of tracks from Mario Karts of yesteryear tend to focus on implementing one or two of these newer features. The 3DS tracks see the least change, as that was the title that first properly introduced these kart transformations, but the DS Wario Stadium sees a brief wall-climbing section added to the familiar dune hops, and the simple act of widening the paths on tracks from Mario Kart 64 benefits the experience greatly.

New items include the Piranha Plant, which behaves in a vaguely similar fashion as the Chain Chomp previously did, though this potted monstrosity will provide a few gradual speed boosts as it nips at rival racers and reaches for coins that are just out of its user’s reach. The boomerang grants players three tosses, while a new horn item – despite being a rare pick of the bunch – ends the legacy of the blue shell being the end-all be-all solution of taking out the racer in first place. All in all, these new items fit well with the classic shells and banana peels, and the item blocks tend to respawn faster than in previous Mario Kart titles. Also sped up is the recovery time from falling off the track. This, combined with the less extreme ‘rubber band effect’ of the AI suddenly catching up to player-controlled racers at the front of the pack, makes for a more enjoyable experience overall. At the end of the day, it really is about racing skill and item management more than the CPUs getting lucky at the last possible second and stealing first place.

That’s not to say that the tracks are a cake walk (or Sunday drive, as is perhaps the more appropriate metaphor) – there are plenty of cool design features implemented, such as wavy walls in a Boo-infested mansion, and rolling stone wheels within a temple that takes more than a bit of inspiration from Indiana Jones. There are times that Mario and friends will be upside-down, and paying attention to how fast you’re headed around that next turn is crucial. Graphically, the game is a sight to behold, with lighting effects that cascade over metal track portions as convincingly as they do through snow-covered pine trees. The soundtrack, while still classic Mario Kart fanfare, takes a notably more jazzy approach this time around.

The aforementioned coins do nothing to benefit players in the midst of a race, but rather are the means for unlocking new vehicle option parts, including bike and kart frames, wheels of varying sizes, and colorful gliders for the flying portions. Earning gold in the three Grand Prix difficulty settings will reward players with new characters. Admittedly, a decent portion of the roster is represented by the Koopalings, and while they have been brought back into the limelight in recent Mario titles, including half of them in Mario Kart 8 would have sufficed. There are a couple of surprising additions to the roster, but for the most part, it’s the usual suspects – though there certainly isn’t any shortage of weight classes and racer styles to choose from.

This Wii U Mario Kart allows players to use literally any controller setup they so desire, from the Gamepad, to the Wiimote (with or without the nunchuck), to the Classic Controller and Pro Controller. It’s a pretty ingenious strategy Nintendo has adopted with the Wii U, and allows players the freedom to control this new Mario Kart in a fashion either more akin to the previous Wii title or even older Gamecube and N64 incarnations. The battle mode is, truth be told, rather weak when compared to just about any other version of Mario Kart. The fundamentals remain intact, but there are no battle mode-specific stages in Mario Kart 8. Instead, the game has you and your friends duking it out with CPU characters on the regular race tracks, and while the three balloon life system works just as well as before, the insanely large areas of these tracks robs the battle mode of much of its strategy and fun factor.

Despite this one significant misstep, Mario Kart 8 is an otherwise solid entry in the long-running series. It’s not groundbreaking by any means, and frankly, many of its successes are owed to the 3DS and Wii titles which preceded it. But it builds off the groundwork enough to feel the part of a worthwhile addition to the series. And it is a lot of fun, which is really what a good kart racer should be.

My rating: 8 (out of 10)